Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Tapioca Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tapioca
Soak the tapioca in water overnight.
Make the cream
Bring the milk to a boil, then add the soaked tapioca.
Once cool, stir in the beaten egg yolks and sugar.
Pour the mixture into a dish and fold in the beaten egg whites.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tapioca
- Starch that thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the cream its body.
- Milk
- Liquid base that the tapioca thickens into a creamy custard.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness, colour and smoothness to the cream.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the yolks and milk.
- Egg whites
- Folded in whipped to trap air, lightening the texture of the cream.
The step that matters
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Whipped egg whites hold air that gives the cream lightness. Stirring vigorously knocks that air out, leaving a denser, flatter result.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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